Silica: Missing?
by UnseenAssailant
Summary: Silica doesn't turn up for school and no-one knows where she is. If they can't contact her, how will Kirito and the others find out what's happened to their friend? Set after Ordinal Scale.


**A/N: Just watched Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale and I loved the Augma. However, I could see this being a problem so I decided to write a one-shot about it. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it :)**

Silica: Missing?

Kirigaya Kazuto drove though the quiet streets on his motorcycle. Today had been another boring day at school, mostly teachers trying to get them to decide on their futures. This was all pointless to Kazuto; he already knew what he was going to do. He wanted to create more advanced full-dive technology and he had already started looking for universities that could support that.

He did find one thing concerning, though. One of his best friend's, Ayano Keiko, better known as Silica, hadn't appeared at school. Not that they had any classes together, but he could usually see her talking to another of their friends, Shinozaki Rika or Lisbeth, at lunchtime. He'd asked Liz if she knew where Silica was, but she said no and that Silica hadn't replied to any of her messages. Kazuto reassured her that Silica was probably just sick and she'd be back in a couple of days, and that was the end of that.

Still...

When Kazuto got home, he went upstairs and gently knocked on his sister's door. It opened and Kirigaya Suguha allowed him in.

"What's up, Brother?" she asked, smiling.

"Sugu, have you had any messages from Silica today?"

"No... why?" Suguha looked confused.

"She wasn't at school. And she won't answer Lisbeth's messages. I'm sure she's fine, I just wondered if you knew anything else."

"Well, I don't know. It is a little weird for her to not answer messages though. Ever since she got that Augma, she hasn't taken it off." They chuckled slightly at that. The Augma had been almost too exciting for Silica, mostly because of the singing idol AI, Yuna, and the ability to listen to her songs with a karaoke setting.

"I guess maybe after Yuna disappeared, she decided to slow down on all that stuff," Kazuto suggested. "Maybe that's why she hasn't replied, she doesn't know she's getting messages."

"Yeah, that's probably it," his sister agreed.

* * *

Two days passed and still no sign of Silica. Kazuto had asked their other friends, Asuna, Klein, Sinon and Agil but they hadn't heard from her either. He even plucked up the courage to talk to Silica's little band of girls if they knew what happened to her. It was a bit awkward since they were all two years younger than him and all kept giggling, but Kazuto managed to get out of them that they had no idea.

They decided to have a meeting in Kazuto and Asuna's house in ALfheim Online because it was starting to worry them. Kazuto, or as he was known in ALO, Kirito, placed his AmuSphere on his head and lay back in his bed. He arrived along with the others and Yui, the navigation pixie and Kirito and Asuna's adopted daughter, was also there.

"OK, does everyone know the situation?" he asked, getting straight to the point. They nodded. "Good, so, no-one has seen Silica since she disappeared? Not IRL or in ALO?" The others shook their heads.

"Have you tried to go to her house?" Klein asked.

"No, I don't know where she lives," Kirito admitted. "Does anyone else?"

The group suddenly realised how little they knew about Silica's home-life. Whenever any of them met up with her, it was in the city somewhere rather than at her house.

"I hope nothing bad has happened," Lisbeth whispered.

"Come to think of it," Sinon piped up. "She has been going out on her own a lot to play Ordinal Scale."

"Ordinal Scale?" Kirito repeated. "Is that still around?"

"Yeah, some other guy bought the rights to it and now it's running same as before." Sinon explained.

"They've not spawned in SAO bosses since that whole incident with Shigemura happened, though," Klein added. "I doubt they'll be coming back at all."

"Maybe she got lost..." Asuna theorised.

"Calm down, guys," Agil suddenly spoke up. "If something bad did happen to Silica, wouldn't her parents do something about it? They'd likely call the school to see if they knew anything. And if that was the case, how long do you think it would take for the students to find out? You all go to the same school, right?"

"Agil's right," Kirito said. "We would know. But either way, if we can't contact her, how will we know what's actually going on?"

"We'll just have to wait patiently," Klein said. "She'll talk to us in her own time. We can't rush her if we don't know what she's doing, can we?"

"That's true..." Asuna sighed. "OK, let's wait for her."

"Alright!" the group shouted.

* * *

Two days later, Kazuto awoke to a sharp buzzing sound. It wasn't too early, luckily, so he got out of bed to find the source of the buzzing. It was coming from a drawer in the corner of the room. Opening the drawer, he rummaged through the contents until he felt a soft vibration against his palm. He pulled out his old Augma which surprised him. He had stopped using it after the incident and it had ended up buried in his "Old Stuff" drawer. He put it on and activated it. There was a new message. That was odd. Who still used Augmas for that? Kazuto opened the message tab and almost choked on the air as he read the sender's name: _Ayano Keiko._

With trembling fingers, he tapped on the message. It said:

 _Come 2 the hospital. Quick!_

What? What did she mean? Many questions were popping up in Kazuto's head but he knew what to do now. He rushed out of the room and crashed straight into Suguha, who looked equally flustered.

"Sugu! Sorry, are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine but did you get that message from Silica?"

"About the hospital?"

"Yes, let's go!" The two teenagers ran downstairs, hurriedly put their shoes on and jumped onto Kazuto's motorcycle.

* * *

When they reached the hospital, they ran to the receptionist's desk.

"Excuse me, we're here to see our friend." Kazuto said quickly.

"Can you give me the patient's name?" the receptionist asked.

"Ayano Keiko," Suguha told her.

"I see. And what would your names be?"

"My name is Kirigaya Suguha and this is Kirigaya Kazuto."

"Ahhh, Miss Ayano is expecting you," the receptionist said. "Go to room 3-B, you'll find her there."

"Thank you," Kazuto and Suguha both said.

Room 3-B was slightly more busy than they had expected. It seemed everyone got a message from Silica as they were all there. Silica herself lay on a large white bed with a cast on her left leg. She smiled as the Kirigayas came in.

"Kirito! Leafa! I'm so glad you came!"

"Silica! What happened?" Kazuto asked. He noticed she had a few bruises on her body.

"Ah, well... it's kinda embarrassing..." the girl mumbled. Everyone looked at her confused. She sighed. "Well, um, I was playing Ordinal Scale and the boss was really scary so I was kinda distracted, and then..."

"Then?"

"Then... then I fell over a bench and landed on my leg funny..." Silica was red in the face at this point and they couldn't help themselves but laugh at her antics. "Yeah, yeah, it's funny."

"But Silica," Lisbeth asked. "Why haven't you been answering our messages?"

"Um... well, when I fell, my Augma must have slipped off so i, er, lost it..." She pointed to the Augma currently on her head. "Mum and Dad got me a new one though so that's how I contacted you guys. And how I've survived sitting here for four whole days." Kazuto noticed a book on the bedside table. The bookmark looked like it hadn't even reached the second page. He guessed she had spent her time singing along to Yuna songs.

Liz nodded. "Mmm, I'll let you off this time. But if you leave me hanging like that again, you're buying me lunch for a week!"

"I-I'm so sorry, Liz! I didn't mean to scare you!" Silica squealed, looking flustered. The others laughed again. "Anyway, the nurses said I'm gonna get discharged sometime this week so I'll be able to come back to school with you!"

"That's great, Silica," Asuna smiled. "We'll have to throw you a party!"

"Oh, no, it's OK-"

"Let's have it at my café," Agil said. "Who wants to help decorate?"

"Yeah!" everyone answered. Silica beamed. It made her so happy to know everyone cared for her so much.

"Thank you, you guys!" Silica said. "I'll get better as soon as possible!"


End file.
